HUNGAN

[Haitian] The Haitian term for priest or spirit master of the voodoo cult, derived from the Fon of Dahomey. The rituals of voodoo are often led by a hungan. During these rituals the worshippers invoke the loa by drumming, singing, dancing, and feasting, and the loa take possession of the dancers. Each dancer then behaves in a manner characteristic of the possessing spirit and while in an ecstatic trance performs cures and gives advice. Its literal meaning is deity-chief, hun in Fon being a synonym for (vodun) deity, and ga signifying chief.